Andrew Dickens: Our public service can do better

A mate and I have a little joke.  

Whenever we screw up. Either big or small.  We’ll look at each other and say, “it only took one goat”.  

It acknowledges that it takes forever to build up a good reputation and all it takes is one misstep to immediately undo all that good work. 

New Zealand was recently told it had slipped a place in the world reputational survey around fraud and corruption. 

We’re now 4th in the world. Which is still very good but not as good as we were before. 

The news that confidential data held by a government agency was inappropriately given to a third party is a very serious one. 

Maybe it wasn’t misused but it shouldn’t have been released.  

And maybe this was not as dodgy as it seems but if we let standards slide then the next time could be even worse.  

This is not the right time to be seen as a wink wink nudge nudge country. There’s more than enough third world metrics in play as it is.  

When combined with Brian Roche’s report on the civil service that shows us to be over governed and below standard then the slow degradation of New Zealand’s reputation is underway.  

We have too many Public Servants and the ones that are there make either stupid mistakes or dodgy decisions.  

New Zealand can do better is the report card. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Made of my and sorry, I'll start that again. A
mate and I have a little joke whenever we screw up,
either big or small, we'll look at each other and
go It only took one goat. If you know, you know.
But it acknowledges that it takes forever to build up
a good reputation, and all it takes is one misstep
to immediately undo all that good work. So New Zealand

(00:20):
recently was told that it had slipped to place in
the world reputational survey around fraud and corruption. We're now
fourth in the world. We used to be higher. That's
still pretty good, but it's not as good as we
were before. The news that confidential data held by a
government agency was inappropriately given to a third party as
a very serious one. Maybe it was a misuse, but

(00:43):
that's not the point. It should never have been released.
It should not have been released without safeguards. Maybe this
was not as dodgy as it seems, but if we
let standard slide, then the next time could be even worse.
This is not the right time to be seen as
a wink nudge nudge sort of country. There's more than
enough third world antics in play in this country as
it is already. And when you combine that finding along

(01:06):
with Brian Roach's report into the Civil Service that shows
us to be over governed and shows our governance our
civil service to be below standard, then the slow degradation
of New Zealand's reputation is certainly underway. We have too
many public servants and the ones that are there are
making either stupid mistakes or dodgy decisions. So New Zealand

(01:28):
can do better. That's the report card. For more from
Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talk
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